


spit it out!

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional Constipation, Light Angst, M/M, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:21:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26133391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: By the time they debut with Firetruck, Mark comes to the conclusion that Donghyuck holds his heart in the palm of his hand.By Chewing Gum, he’s carelessly swallowed it.Mark wants his heart back.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 18
Kudos: 156





	spit it out!

Mark writes a song about Donghyuck.

The sunlight pours into the room, slowly reaching out. The chair he’s perched on creaks as he rocks on his feet.

“What are you writing about?” It makes Mark blink. Donghyuck shuffles forward.

“Nothing,” he replies, clenching his notebook to his chest. It’s beating in a way that not even dancing practice would be able to replicate.

Donghyuck’s mouth spreads itself into a grin. It’s absolutely devilish. “Is it about me? Mark Lee, I knew you liked me!”

“Right,” Mark says, feeling something lick through him.

When Donghyuck wrests the notebook away from Mark’s hands, Mark pushes him onto the next mattress. Donghyuck shrieks and throws a pillow at him.

All the words were in English.

He wonders if Donghyuck knows anyway.

===

Mark is selected to be on Mickey Mouse Club, and the producers hand him a script. He’ll perform this skit with Donghyuck and Jisung.

Mark pores over it. He memorizes everything. When they rehearse the lines at the meeting, the director approves of everything.

When they film, though, and Donghyuck executes his lines in his distinctive nasal voice, and Mark has his next line on the tip of his tongue—

“Listen carefully,” Donghyuck says in English.

Mark feels like his head is submerged beneath the water.

They end up repeating the take, and Mark’s heartbeat is totally out of control. It won’t listen to him at all—it’s as if his heart isn’t even his own anymore.

===

By the time they debut with Firetruck, Mark comes to the conclusion that Donghyuck holds his heart in the palm of his hand.

By Chewing Gum, he’s carelessly swallowed it.

Mark wants his heart back.

===

The worst thing about it is that Donghyuck, Haechan, he _knows._

With NCT Dream, everybody is younger than him. This means a lot of things: they make him the leader by default, they tease him relentlessly for being old (the only 20th century man,) they call him hyung.

They especially love throwing him under the bus.

They go on MY SMT. Jeno points at him when asked about who might want to do a different concept. Doyoung and Leeteuk grill him to the ground and ask him which his favorite unit is.

Jaemin, Renjun, Jeno and Chenle lean in and get up in his face. Jisung and Donghyuck aren’t, but Donghyuck’s leaning back, a smile on his face as he watches Mark stutter, and it’s even worse. Leeteuk covers for him by asking if he wants to go to the toilet.

“Who listens to you the least?” Leeteuk asks him later.

Mark doesn’t even have to think. “It’s Haechan.”

When they ask him why he doesn’t like getting kissed, he says, “I’m afraid my skin will turn bad.” It’s utter bullshit, and everyone knows.

They make him kiss Doyoung on the cheek, which is fine. Then they tell Donghyuck to go to the front, talk some shit about skinship being bonding, and tell Mark to say something to Donghyuck.

Donghyuck tilts his cheek towards Mark, expectant. “Let’s get along,” Mark says, (a liar--who says that about someone who’s eaten their heart up?) and pecks him on the cheek.

They make him kiss Chenle too.

The groans and whines and reactions are by far the loudest with the second kiss. It makes Mark feel some sort of way, the way Haechan gets to do this and just walk away.

Aside from getting grilled on Dongsook, Donghyuck sings a bit of Billionaire.

It takes Mark back to the training rooms, back when Donghyuck annoyed him into going back into the dorms. They fought. Donghyuck refused to call him hyung for a week.

Why did he find Donghyuck so aggravating? Did he have his heart even back then?

Probably.

===

“Mark.”

“Hm?”

“Mark.”

“What?”

“Mark.”

“What is it?”

“Mark.”

“Mark.”

“Mark.”

“Mark, come on.”

Mark rolls over his shoulder.

Donghyuck meets his eyes unblinkingly, and with a straight face, says, “I love you.”

===

On a late night, they talk about their futures. What they’ll do, even after they’re idols. Donghyuck says he can’t picture his life without him and pulls him into a hug.

Mark tells Donghyuck that he really, really likes him. That he wants to kiss him.

Donghyuck’s face scrunches up like he’s bitten a lemon. The words he spits are painful and personal-- _we’ll distract each other-- I’m not willing to let you throw your career away for some passing fancy, hyung._

Nothing about how he felt, really.

===

Donghyuck knows that Mark’s heart is in his hands. He takes to aegyo as easy as breathing, yet can’t stutter out what he thinks.

So the next day, when Donghyuck touches him while they rehearse the We Young choreo, Mark pulls away.

Donghyuck’s pretending like he doesn’t know, and it makes Mark’s insides boil and boil.

“Don’t pretend like it didn’t happen,” Mark says as they walk out of the practice room.

Donghyuck slams the door behind him.

Mark asks for a new roommate.

===

The fans notice.

Get your shit together, management tells them.

And because Mark’s the one who blew the whole thing up, they guilt him into extending an olive branch. He walks up to Donghyuck, his voice is dry and crackly, and with every word he says, he feels like he’s going to explode. “Hey, we should really talk.”

They move over to the living room. Donghyuck plops down on the couch, and he settles on the floor.

“I wanna start by saying sorry,” Mark says. “I’m sorry for being dramatic and reacting like that.”

“I really chewed up your confession and spat it back out at you.” Donghyuck’s left leg is bouncing on the ground. “I shouldn’t have done that. Sorry.”

It breaches Mark’s train of thought, and is the only thing he can think of. Mark feels like his head’s been dunked beneath the water once again. “I’ve liked you for years, you know that, right? I’ve liked-loved you for a really long time.”

Donghyuck’s gaze is on the table. “This, this isn’t professional, Mark...this isn’t smart. This isn’t what you want.”

“I’m not asking you out. Please just...tell me how you feel. I need to know.”

The minute Donghyuck takes to find the words flows by slowly. It’s quiet enough to hear the telltale signs of the clock legs turning.

“I like you,” Donghyuck says, voice quiet.

“I like you too,” Mark says, gently. “We can figure out things as we go.”

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this within a day lol
> 
> title from [spit it out](https://youtu.be/4w_R-srY2b0), this f(x) song. check it out!
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/sesunmii) | [cc](https://curiouscat.me/sesunmi)


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